Tsok gatherings are not only a profound practice of generosity, purification, and deep connection to the path of Vajrayana, but also a joyful opportunity to gather in sacred community.

When we talk about tsok, it’s a word in Tibetan which means “gathering.” We gather together to celebrate tsok, to celebrate something. But what is it that we want to celebrate, and why do we want to celebrate anything at all?

Sometimes we call it a ceremony, and sometimes we call it a ritual. But it might be appropriate to call it life. It's not only a celebration of the vitality and splendor of life, but it is the liveliness of life itself— our life, our interconnected togetherness.

When we do tsok, there are a few things we want to look at. The first is time—when are we going to do it? Then there’s the place—where are we going to do it? And with whom? Our fellow practitioners, our Vajra brothers and sisters.

Next, what are the substances we’re going to use, and why? What is the ceremony itself?

The Time

When it comes to the time: some people have the idea that in order to do tsok, it should be done on specific days that are already defined by the tradition—usually the 10th and the 25th days of the lunar calendar.

The reason we use the 10th Guru Day and the 25th Dakini Day is connected to the moon’s position. Some say that the moon affects our channels, our lung (subtle winds), and our energies. So, we want to do specific rituals on those days.

It can be nice doing it on those days because there’s something special about knowing that, all around the world, practitioners are doing the same thing. Even though it’s not the same hour—because of time zones—usually people do it around 7:00 or 8:00 in the evening. Sometimes it’s done in the morning; but typically, it’s done in the evening, after sunset. When you do it, there’s a strong energy—even if you can’t see the thousands of others who are doing the same. Still, we’re doing it together.

You also have the opportunity to do the ceremony on the full moon or the new moon. On the new moon, practitioners often do tsok with fierce yidams or Dharma protectors. On the full moon, the practice might be for peaceful yidams such as Medicine Buddha or Tara. The 10th and 25th fall around the half-moon phases—either waxing or waning—but still, they’re times of visible transition. So you have four or five occasions each month for doing tsok.

Now: why do we do this? Why do we want to have this special opportunity to gather? If you’ve received empowerment in Yoga Tantra or Anuttara Yoga Tantra, you may have received commitments—samaya—from your teacher or lama to observe these days. You promised to do the full sadhana and the tsok sadhana, sometimes referred to as tsok feast or ganachakra, on the 10th and 25th.

But even if you’re not a Tantric practitioner, think about it: Christians have rituals too—like going to church on Sunday. In Islam, practitioners pray five times a day and have holidays on specific lunar days too. Why? Because we want to maintain something in our minds as a stream. One of the meanings of tantra is stream. We want to keep this stream going again and again, until we reach infinite enlightenment.

So then you might ask: why not do tsok every day? That’s a good question. If we’re talking about time, why do we only do it on the 10th and 25th? You can transform any action of your life into a ceremony or a ritual—if you know how to do it.

The People

When we gather with Vajra brothers and sisters, we try to see everyone in the context of tantra as a Buddha—or at least, as possessing Buddha-nature. Even the neighbors who annoy us!

So who is coming to our tsok? It's usually family, and they may not be practitioners at all. Should I see them as Vajra brothers and sisters? According to tradition, a Vajra sibling is someone who received empowerment with you from the same lama on the same deity. That’s the classical definition. But why not expand that? Why not see all beings that way? When I go out in the world I ask: who are these people around me? They are Buddhas in process. Either they’re already Buddhas and I can’t recognize them, or they are becoming Buddhas, or will become Buddhas in the future. So I can celebrate with them now.

What is most important is the mindset that we hold during any gathering. To see all beings as Buddhas. Remember, tsok means gathering. We can transform every gathering into the high ritual that we truly want it to be. This transformation has to do not only with the time of the gathering, but also with who we are gathering with. Can you see turning family gatherings like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter meals into tsok feasts? What would that look like internally -- within your own heart and mind? Even if nobody else new it was a tsok and nothing changed externally, how would that change the experince of gathering together with your family and relatives?

The Offering Substances

Now, let’s talk about the substances. What are the substances typically used in tsok, and why do we use them? What role do they play in the ceremony?

The traditional substances themselves are relatively simple. Usually, they include alcohol, though we never call it wine, whiskey, or any other ordinary name. Instead, we call it Madana. That’s the traditional name. The way you consume the madana is to take your left ring finger and dip it in the liquid and you just put it on your tongue. That's it. You don't need very much, and you are not drinking more than a drop. You can then pass the madana around to everyone participating, for them to do the same.

Then there is meat, which is called Bala. So, we always consume Bala and Madana during tsok, and there is a reason for this. Tantra started in early India. The Brahmin caste at the time practiced a very strict form of ritual purity. They never consumed alcohol or meat—anything considered impure. But in tantra, we aim to transform our mind so that nothing is seen as inherently impure. Everything is pure. That is a fundamental view. So, part of the ritual is to look at these traditionally impure substances and recognize their purity.

Before tantra came to Tibet, Indian practitioners had to work to transform the mind. They had to learn not to reject anything—especially not in tantra. So these substances that were offered were symbolic representations of what society viewed as impure. This notion of  impurity, in this view, is only a tendency or a perception. It came from cultural conditioning and belief systems—not from the true nature of things. What views do you hold about what is pure and impure, proper and improper, polite and impolite, appropriate and inappropriate? How attached are you to these views? When in the presence of what is improper, impure, impolite, and inappropriate how do you feel?

However, if you are vegan, vegetarian, have dietary or cultural concerns, or don't have any alcohol, then just use what is appropriate for your life. We don’t only offer meat and alcohol. We offer many things—things that delight the senses. We offer food, fruits, flowers, candles or lights, and incense—anything that pleases the senses. What delights your senses? Maybe flowers, because they’re beautiful. Maybe candles, because the light is lovely. Good food tastes delicious. Incense smells wonderful. These are all appropriate offerings.

It is traditional to offer dance and singing as well. If you are familiar with monastic life, you’ll know that monks are generally not allowed to dance or sing—except on tsok days. On those days, specific rituals permit these expressive forms. That tells us something. What is not permitted, or not “pure,” on a daily basis is permitted—and becomes pure—on these specific days. Singing and dancing aren’t something you “consume” like food or drink. Instead, they are experiential offerings. They are felt within the body and mind. You listen to good music. You express something beautiful. And this is not something we typically think of as an offering.

In some tantric lineages, you work with your channels, energies, and chakras until you reach a certain level of realization. Then, the mind itself—in its purified state—is offered. So whether through yoga, deep meditation, or simply through advanced realization, the highest offering you can make to your teacher or lama is your practice—your level of realization. That is all your teacher truly wants: to see you enlightened—or at least progressing along the path to enlightenment. If you can offer that kind of realization during tsok, and your teacher is present, it is a profound and beautiful offering.

Offerings for the Tsok Table:

The tsok offering is symbolic and rich with meaning. Please prepare a small table with small amounts (not bulk) of the following:

• Drinks: Juice, kombucha, wine (if appropriate in your tradition), or other celebratory liquids

• Foods: Sweet and savory snacks, fresh fruits, nuts, crackers, bread, (in small, symbolic amounts)

• Small amount of meat (sausages)

• For those who are vegan or vegetarians you can bring cheese or substitute.

• If you have dietary restrictions, please bring items accordingly – dried fruits, vegan chocolates, vegan cheese, plant-based snacks, etc.

All offerings should be clean, fresh, beautifully presented, and preferably unopened packages unless homemade. The emphasis is on symbolic generosity, not consumption.

The Place

Now let’s turn to the environment—the physical space. Think about when you throw a party and invite people over. What do you do? You clean the house. You make nice food. You decorate. You create an atmosphere that is different from your everyday space.

We want the space to feel special. If you already have a personal altar and practice tantra daily, that’s wonderful. But on tsok days, you want to prepare something more elaborate. You don’t need to go overboard with shopping and decorating. Just prepare the space. Clean it. Make it inviting. You’ll feel better when the place is clean and beautiful, even if you’re celebrating tsok by yourself. Even without a group gathering, you can still create a beautiful and sacred environment. It really makes a difference.

In large tsoks with many people, by the end of the ceremony, everything on the altar will have been blessed—through the energy, the prayers, and the entire gathering. If you’ve ever been to one of these large empowerments or tsok ceremonies, you know that by the end, everyone runs to grab something, because all the substances have been blessed. That’s why we place so many things together on the altar. So make sure to share the blessed food after the ritual blessing with everyone!

You don’t always have to go with the most traditional aesthetic. Some offerings can even look like a party! And there’s nothing wrong with that. You don’t need to stick to the exact traditional way—you can make it your own. Instead of traditional tormas, they used cookies and chocolates and placed them in three or five jars.  One torma for local land spirits, one for hungry ghosts, and one for the deity we practice.

You can be very creative! You don’t have to follow the traditional way exactly. You can bring in your own expression. You can be creative with your offerings and bring your heart into it.

Offerings don’t always have to be edible items. They can be art, painting, poetry, song, or dance too. Everyone singing and dancing as an offering of something joyful.

The Offerings to All Beings

The offering is not only for those who participate and that you can see. We are going to offer to all beings. All beings means maybe beings that you cannot see. It can be hungry ghosts, animals, Buddhas, and bodhisattvas that we are inviting.

We use our bell and drum to make noise in order to invite them. So, it is not only for those of us who have gathered together, but we are also giving offerings to them. The offerings will be placed outside for them to consume, but also on the altar.

A word of caution because some substances can be poison to some creatures outside. So please, please never use chocolate or put chocolate outside when you bring the offering out, because it is poison to many creatures. We don’t want the tsok ritual to harm any creatures. Be aware of that.

Now, what happens if you are doing the tsok ceremony and at the end you have leftover offerings that you want to put outside? Don’t just put it on the groung; put it under a bush or a tree. If you have a place near water, like a waterfall or a lake, you can put it there. We don’t want people to step on or smash the leftovers because they have been purified by the ritual. We want to put them somewhere nice. We don’t know who will come to consume them — animals, hungry ghosts, or others. 

The Tsok Ritual

This gathering is known in Sanskrit as Gana Chakra. The name itself suggests something profound—it relates to chakras. Sometimes, this gathering is also referred to as a puja, which means a ritual or ceremonial offering. For example, there are fire pujas and tsok pujas.

So something is happening here—externally, internally, and secretly. As you may know, everything in tantra has these three dimensions: the outer, inner, and secret. 

Why do we do the tsok? Let's say everything is beautifully prepared — traditional or creative, whatever you want. Why do we do the tsok?

Tantra is very important because it gathers a lot of geywa, which means merit, and also purification, but mostly geywa.

Of course, if you are able to stay in trekchö and you are a strong Dzogchen practitioner, this tantra tsok is not for you. But for most of us, we want to do something that creates a lot of geywa and reduces the amount of digpa — negative karma — that we keep accumulating again and again.

So there is a reason we do this specific ritual. The mindset is very important. Usually, people who practice the same yidam gather together. There is a reason we do that: to accumulate merit when practicing the tsok. If you understand karma, you know what happens: you are accumulating merit continuously, even if it’s imagined or visionary. You are giving again and again. So you create a lot of merit and practice something that creates this situation. The ceremony creates this merit. You want to bring your mindset into this situation.

Secondly, every tsok practice purifies karma. It depends on the specific tsok, but Vajrasattva tsok, for example, purifies your karma and negative actions.

So we accumulate merit, purify negative karma, and also keep the lineage’s thread alive. Otherwise, how would we get enlightened? We wouldn’t be able to.

Outer, Inner, and Secret Offerings

We practice the tsok because we do outer, inner, and secret offerings.

On the outer level, in the gathering, we have bala, which is the white substance representing the male principle, and madana, representing the female principle. So, we have mother and bala, cookies or fruits, and things that combine them. Remember, tantra works with symbols and representations — everything is symbolic.

On the inner level, we combine compassion and bliss. Compassion is represented by the male energy — the bala. So we gather compassion and bring bliss into it, which is what tantra does, especially in completion stage practices.

On the secret level, we combine energies from chakras — the white male energy from one chakra and red energy from the lower chakras — bringing them to the heart. When this joint energy, called bodhichitta and the red tigle, come together, compassion and bliss unite energetically. This is the secret.

To do this, you need to learn many things to participate properly in the ceremony. Your practice level determines what you do.

If you can only practice the outer level, you do many ceremonies involving food offerings.

If you can bring energies together, you work with compassion and bliss together in the same ceremony.

If you are a high-level practitioner doing completion stage practices like tummo, you can do the same tsok — same mantras, offerings, time, and people — but your practice is totally different.

Regarding the ritual itself, if you practice a specific deity, you gather with others practicing that deity and do the tsok for that deity at your level.

Sacred Mindset and Attitude

This is not just a gathering of food – it's a ritual act of devotion. Please generate:

• A heart of offering, remembering we are symbolically feeding all enlightened beings, protectors, dakinis, as well as healing our own dualistic tendencies.

• Joy and gratitude, as tsok is a celebration – a feast of wisdom and bliss.

• A sense of respect and inner silence, even within the joy, remembering the holiness of the lineage and our spiritual commitments.

• Please dress in clean, modest, and comfortable clothing, ideally light in color or in accordance with your personal tradition.

• If you have received a specific empowerment for the a deity you practice, this is a time to renew your samaya. If not, you are still welcome to participate respectfully, receive the blessings, and dedicate the merit.

Tsok Offering Verses

RAM YAM KHAM OM AH HUNG

In your heart, there appears a dark red syllable RAM that burns the offering. It purifies burning away the impurities. From the syllable YAM which also arises and comes out of your heart, a great wind arises and scatters the impurities. And from the syllable KHAM which arises from your heart, infinite water arises which cleanses impurities. And with this they are purified within the emptiness of the absolute space of the great primordial purity, the Dharmadhatu beyond any conceptualization.

From the heart comes a white OM surrounded with little tigles. Each tigle transforms into a precious vessel as deep and vast as the sea. Spreading out to fill the whole universe inside the white OM representing the essence of the enlightened body of all Buddhas. The red AH, the essence of their enlightened speech and the blue HUNG, the essence of enlightened mind rain down from the absolute sphere beyond time and space; the fourth time. 

In the skullcup of the basic sphere of reality, intrinsic awareness is arranged as a torma feast offering.

The skull cup represents the basic sphere of reality. We are not in mundane reality; this is an elaborated, open sphere — intrinsic awareness inside of you. The torma feast offering is arranged as infinite open awareness — symbolic of open awareness. When you offer and consume it, feel that you are in this open awareness, which is very special.

The rainbow lights, rays, and points of the six lights of awareness are radiant desirable qualities.

Suddenly, rainbow lights rise — the six lights of awareness radiate desirable qualities. Ask yourself: what desirable qualities do you want? I hope it’s not material things like a nice car or more money.

With such wondrous, inconceivable samaya,
to the deities of the Three Roots, self-originated intrinsic awareness,

We do this with wondrous inconceivable samaya — commitment. Samaya is a commitment we make now with the deities — the three roots: Buddha, Dharma, and Lama. They self-originate the internal awareness we have inside us. 

in the continuum of the evenness of non-duality, I make offerings.

We want to recognize this internal awareness in the continuum of the evidence of nonduality. That’s where we make our offering. If I can rest in the natural mind here, that’s the offering I give.

In the great sphere [of dharmakaya], the limitations of discursive thought, I confess.

We go to the great sphere of Dharmakaya, which has no limitation — it is open and infinite. There, I confess — and this is purification. What do I confess? I confess in the non-arising basic space of all phenomena, which is the Sambhogakaya.

In the non-arising basic space of phenomena, the forces of dualism are liberated.

The forces of dualism are liberated. If there is any hint of subject-object or dualistic thinking, I open that, confess it, release it, and relax into that.

The enlightened activity of awakening delusory appearances directly in the ground of being is accomplished.

The enlightened activities of awakening — the luminous appearances — arise directly in the ground of beings and are accomplished. So I come back into the ground, but I am not separate from the Dharma and Sambhogakaya. Now we are one; everything is accomplished.

Having perfected the pristine awareness of the naturally manifest Four Visions,
may we awaken in the wisdom-form of the primordially pure Youthful Vase Body.

After perfecting the pristine awareness of the naturally manifested four visions, we also do dedication.

Blessing the Offerings

To prepare the water for blessing the offerings, add a dutsi pill (blessing pill) either whole or ground finely into a small amount of madana such as wine or whiskey. You can put this into a small bowl, or bumpa (vase) if you have it. You only need about an ounce for even a small gathering. 

Then using your left ring finger, dip the tip of your finger into the blessing water and sprinkle it on the offering suffering. If you have a peacock feather, you can also use that to dip into the blessing water and sprinkle the offerings. This blesses the offering substances with dutsi and madana. 

Another method to bless the offering substances with a mudra. Reciting OM AH HUNG,  touch your thumb and pointer finger together in both hands and bring all four fingers together. Then moving in a small horizontal circle, separate the two pairs of fingers and thumbs, moving them outwardly in a circle for each OM AH HUNG. Do this three times over each offering substances.

Having blessed the offerings, feel blessed in return. Place some of the offerings into a separate bowl or plate and offer it to the lama. You can offer it to a picture of the lama if they are not there. If you don't have a lama, you can offer it to any deity, Buddha or bodhisattva. Repeat the mudra and mantra three times as you place the offering to the lama.

Then you can make an offering plate for the local land spirits outside. You can recite the prayer below with drum and bell to call all the beings to come feast on the blessed foods. Take them outside and place them up high, or toss them up into the air. 

Share Joyfully In the Merit

Finally, all those who have gathered can share and eat, and be merry. People are inivted to share songs, dances, poems, stories, experiences, etc. At the end, dedicate the merit. Let people take as much of the blessed food offerings as they want to give to friends and family, and any remainders offer to the local land spirits outside.

Additional Prayers

Prayer for offering the fragrant scents of Wassail

OM. The supreme form of the great King of Courage.

Collects the essence of the forest.

This attractive and fragrant scent,

That has been purely and cleanly arranged, 

Also, purifies the gods of the upper realm.

Also, purifies the nagas of the lower realm.

Also, purifies the spirits of the middle realm. 

Also, purifies this altar, seat of the offerings.

Also, purifies our clothes.

Also, all our offering substances become purified.

OM ZHIM ZHIM DRAM DRAM BÜN NÉ THIM THIM YÉ SO HA

A Quaich Prayer for Offering Clean Water

OM. The supreme form of the great King of Courage,

Having conquered the faults of the mountain of snow, 

Dispels the karmic inclinations and obscurations of this ritual water, 

That has been purely and cleanly arranged. This water:

Also, cleanses the gods of the upper realm, 

Also, cleanses the nagas of the lower realm, 

Also, cleanses the spirits of the middle realm, 

Also, cleanses this altar, seat of the offerings, 

Also, cleanses our clothes. 

Also, all our offering substances become cleansed.

OM SHU DHO SHU DHO KU SHU DHO TSANG SA LE SANG NGÉ YÉ SO HA

Prayer Before Eating Meat

chom den dé dé shyin sheg pa päl dzin la chag tsäl lo 

chom den dé dé shyin sheg pa päl dzong la chag tsäl lo 

chom den dé dé shyin sheg pa nam par röl nam pa chen pa la chag tsäl lo 

ཨོ་ཨ་བི་ར་ཧྃ་ཁེ་ཙ་ར་མཾ་ས་ཧ། 

OM AH BI RA HUNG KHE TSA RAM MUM SVAHA 

repeat the mantra 7x, then blow on the meat/body